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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27922816">Unashamed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottozone/pseuds/ottozone'>ottozone</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Ending, Fluff, M/M, One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:22:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,839</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27922816</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottozone/pseuds/ottozone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakakura is saved after throwing the breaker switches, and lives on to lead Future Foundation with Munakata.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Munakata Kyosuke/Sakakura Juzo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unashamed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakakura flips the last breaker; finally, he can rest. Finally, he can find peace. Munakata would be okay--it didn’t matter that he abandoned him, Sakakura was the original traitor after all. <em>So this is my punishment,</em> he thought. But as long as Munakata was safe, it wasn’t so bad. He could be the one to bear this, easily.</p>
<hr/><p><em>Sakakura still believes in me, he said, the emergency lights are the proof…</em> He was running, not fast enough. He knew he was running as fast as he could, but it felt like he was underwater, his heavy heart anchoring him to the seafloor, drowning him. How could Sakakura ever forgive him? All this time, all he ever did was lend his strength, but still, Munakata threw him away like trash.</p><p>He thinks back to it again. The moment Yukizome made her move. A knife twisted in his gut. None of it was real, ever since she had lied to him about Enoshima--it was all despair. He should have known; it felt wrong at the time, but it gave him an out. He didn’t have to be ashamed anymore, have to carry that secret. But it didn’t matter now. Both of them were gone; Chisa was dead, and Sakakura would probably never look at him again.</p><p>Finally, he turned the corner. What he saw gripped his insides and pulled; tore apart his heart; sucked the breath from him, all at once. Sakakura lay there, in a pool of his own blood, from the very place where Munakata had stabbed him, and left him to die. So he couldn’t believe it, when he saw the stump that was left of his arm--he was still so determined, he didn’t want to die… He wasn’t a remnant of despair, he never was.</p><p>Munakata ran to him. Sakakura had a slight smile on his face, his hand still on the last breaker. He looked serene. It hurt to look at.</p><p>“Sakakura! Sakakura!” Munakata yelled, gripping him by the shoulders. He was still warm, but was that because he was still alive, or…</p><p>Sakakura’s expression changed, slowly, as if every part of his body had become unbearably heavy. “Munakata… You came.” Each word took considerable effort, each word was deliberate. “There was something I needed to tell you… It’s my fault, all of this. I let her manipulate me… Enoshima, she made a damn fool out of me. She said, hah…” the laugh seemed to cause him pain, but the corners of his lips were turned up in a smile. “She said that if I told you she was guilty… She would show my secret to the world.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“It’s that… I love you, Munakata. I was in love with you--I guess I still am. I didn’t know that she would… It’s all my fault, because I couldn’t let go of my damn pride. And… I couldn't let you find out and leave me.”</p><p>Munakata just stared, mouth open slightly. All this time…</p><p>“But you’re alright… So now I can die… In peace.” Sakakura closed his eyes once again. <em>What a blessing</em>, he thought, <em>that I could see him one last time</em>.</p><p>“NO!” With a shout, Munakata desperately searched around in his pockets, finally finding what he was looking for. Another syringe filled with eerily glowing liquid that he had taken from Kimura’s corpse.</p><p>Sakakura gave a small grunt when he stuck him with it--the needle was long. Munakata was holding him now, but Sakakura wasn’t moving. His voice broke as he started pleading.</p><p>“Sakakura… This can’t be how it ends… God damnit, Sakakura. I was a fool. I didn’t see it, I never knew why you always stayed by my side… I wouldn’t have left you, Sakakura. The truth is… I made a choice when Yukizome started to become intimate with me. I made a choice because she was there, and she was close to me, and it was easy. But by then…” He let out a sob. “By then she was… I should have known. She would have never been so bold.” He was fully crying now, cursing himself for every time he’d gone astray. “Sakakura, please don’t leave me. I don’t want to live without you by my side, I need to make up for everything I’ve done to you… Please, you don’t have to forgive me, I don’t deserve it-”</p><p>That’s when Sakakura stirred. Munakata let out a gasp.</p><p>“I… forgive you.”</p><p>“W-what? Why?”</p><p>Sakakura opened his eyes, looking at the other man with a fierce expression but gentle eyes. “I forgive you. You thought I was a remnant of despair, and you did what you had to do. That’s the Munakata I fell in love with. You were never afraid to make impossible decisions, to move forward…”</p><p>Munakata was aghast, once again. He couldn’t find the words.</p><p>“Munakata, I hope… I hope you can forgive me too. I was so selfish… I knew you could never feel the same way.”</p><p>“That’s-”</p><p>“Come on, don’t pander to a man just because he’s dying.” Sakakura’s face turned from teasing to wistful, no longer able to keep up his nonchalant facade. “It’s ok. I gave up on love a long time ago.”</p><p>Munakata’s eyes steeled. “You’re not fucking dying, you hear me? That’s thanks to Kimura. Thanks to her, I have another chance.”</p><p>“What do you mean, another-”</p><p>That’s when Munakata kissed him. Sakakura needed to know--these weren’t platitudes to comfort a dying man, this is what he should have said all along. Damn Enoshima, damn the whole world that drove shame so deep into their hearts that it could break them, lead them down this destructive path. Damn their pride, damn their loneliness, damn their secrets.</p><p>They broke away from the kiss, and held eye contact. Munakata cradled Sakakura’s cheek in his hand--<em>thank God he’s still alive. </em></p><p>“I had a secret too, Sakakura. The difference between you and me is that no one found out, and no one used it against me… The truth is, I loved both of you. I couldn’t figure it out, I thought there was something wrong with me… I thought maybe, I could blend in as a real man, if I stayed with Yukizome. But those feelings… They didn’t go away. It’s true I loved Yukizome. But I loved you too. That was my secret.”</p><p>Tears came to Sakakura’s eyes. “Wow, what a softie.” He tried to hold back from crying, but he let out a small choke and averted his eyes. Munakata embraced him, tightly, and Sakakura finally let himself hug him back.</p><p>“No more shame, Sakakura. I’ll change the fucked-up world that made you think you had to hide your feelings from me. I forgive you.” With this, Sakakura finally released the tension he didn’t know he had been holding.</p><p>They remained there for a while, kneeling there, holding each other closely.</p>
<hr/><p>The truths about Yukizome and Tengan blew like a whirlwind throughout Future Foundation. Sakakura and Munakata had kept things professional since the final killing game ended--the loss of Yukizome and the transfer of leadership over to Munakata was still fresh, still taking some getting used to.</p><p>Naegi and Kirigiri had been hard at work rebuilding the school they'd come to know so many years ago. It didn't look the same, but it served as a reminder to their duties both to remember the ones who had died there as well as to keep moving forward, to ensure their deaths weren't in vain.</p><p>Munakata was busy arranging lunch on his tray, the same thing he’d eat every day. He heard a voice from behind him.</p><p>“You sure being chairman isn’t too much for you, Munakata?” Munakata smiled at the familiar voice and felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. Wait, <em>hands</em>? He spun around.</p><p>“Sakakura, you-” Munakata looked Sakakura’s left arm up and down. It was of an identical shape to his old hand, but shone silver in the dining hall’s fluorescent lights. However, it still being on Munakata’s shoulder, he noticed that it was actually <em>warm</em>.</p><p>“Did I surprise you? How does it look”</p><p>“Well, it looks great, I--how does it feel? Where did you get it?” Munakata took Sakakura’s new hand in his own and felt it gently. Sakakura blushed.</p><p>“Ah well, you know that group that showed up to save us when the Future Foundation agents went berserk? I asked that goofy-lookin' fairy kid how he got his arm replaced, and he helped me out--ah, I guess I shouldn’t call him that, huh?”</p><p>“Yeah, looks like you and him are the same, after all…" Munakata chuckled. "How much can you do with this thing? Can you feel anything?”</p><p>“Yeah, I couldn't believe it but... It feels pretty much the same as it used to.”</p><p>Munakata pulled away, his face becoming hot, as he had just been stroking Sakakura’s hand without thinking. Sakakura smiled.</p><p>“What do you say we go have lunch together? We can see if I can still eat with this thing.” Sakakura picked up a tray and gathered his lunch as well, and they headed outside to the place they used to sit when before all this happened, their spot. It was a bench on top of a hill overlooking the school, bordered on one side by lush woods. They sat on that bench, closer than they used to.</p><p>Munakata spoke up. “You know, I was thinking… I’m not sure I can lead the Future Foundation all by myself.”</p><p>“Can’t, or don’t want to?” Sakakura grinned.</p><p>“Anyway, the Vice Chairman position is vacant, and I had a certain someone in mind…” Munakata smiled at Sakakura.</p><p>“Well, if you insist.” Sakakura tried to act cool about it, but it was always his dream to lead the Future Foundation alongside Munakata. “Say, Munakata, I actually… wanted to ask you something as well.”</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>“You know, it’s no fun to be lonely in this world… I was thinking, well… Not that the chairman would have the time anyway,” he smirked, “but maybe we could… give it a shot, you and me?” Sakakura looked down again, cheeks flushed.</p><p>“I think I’d like that,” Munakata replied. He reached for Sakakura’s hand once again.</p><p><em>No more shame…</em> Munakata’s words echoed in his mind. Sakakura was finally ready to show the courage he didn’t have before. The one part of him that was never strong--his body, his resolve, those had never wavered. And now, his heart didn’t either. With his free hand, he pulled Munakata in, caressing his face, and kissed him.</p><p>Their lips moved this time, and Munakata’s other hand wrapped around Sakakura’s waist, securing him. Neither of them knew until now how much they needed the other--there was a fervor born from years of restraint, but a calm born from years of trusting each other. It was like they’d just now remembered that this was what they’d been waiting for their whole lives. Unashamed to love each other, unafraid to show it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my first fanfic ever, I hope it's alright ^^;</p><p>I imagine a lot of other people have had the idea to give Sakakura a better ending, so I'm guessing it's nothing new, haha. Just something I wanted to write after watching Future Arc Episode 11 again.</p><p>I encourage any feedback you might have, and let me know if you find a typo--I'm pretty sure they're there...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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